CMS used July 1’s Open Door Forum as an opportunity to remind providers of the fast approaching accreditation and surety bond requirements they must soon have in place in order to continue billing Medicare.

Where surety bonds are concerned, CMS staff on the call reminded the 440 listeners that current HME providers must have a $50,000 surety bond in place by Oct. 2. New providers enrolling with Medicare, or providers changing ownership or opening a new location must submit a surety bond with their 855S applications.

CMS’s Frank Whelan, who covered surety bonds for the call, dismissed a rumor in the industry that HME providers with more than 20 locations needed to obtain a $1 million maximum bond to cover all of their location.

“There is no truth to that rumor,” he said. “You must obtain $50,000 worth of coverage for each location regardless of number.”

Staff also told providers that they can get more information on enrollment and surety bonds from the CMS web site and from the National Supplier Clearinghouse site.

In terms of accreditation, CMS staff reminded providers that they must be accredited by Oct. 1 (the deadline is Sept. 30). CMS’s Sandra Bastinelli had several key accreditation reminders for providers:

• Providers that miss the deadline will no longer receive Medicare funding, no matter when they actually submitted a claim.
• Enrollment applications must include all business locations.
• Providers cannot “co-habitate” at one address; only one supplier must occupy a given business address.
• All subcontractors must be accredited, as well, unless they have a professional exemption.

CMS staff also advised providers that if they do not intend to secure a surety bond or get accredited that they would have their provider number revoked and would not be able to reapply to bill Medicare for at least a year. They advised providers falling in that category to instead opt to use an 855S form to withdraw their supplier number from billing Medicare.